Many of us lack self-awareness.<\/p>\n
Leo Buscaglia, a best-selling author popular for his messages on the importance of love, once took a 5-hour flight from Los Angeles to New Jersey. When he took his aisle seat, it was obvious the man next to him was irritated by his presence. The man explained to Buscaglia that he had hoped to have room to spread out.<\/p>\n
Within moments, they heard a baby cry. \u201cGreat!\u201d the man exclaimed under his breath. \u201cI hate babies on airplanes. We\u2019ll have to listen to that child scream for five hours!\u201d<\/p>\n
When the flight attendant advised that there was an area at the rear of the plane reserved for smokers, he said: \u201cI hate smokers. They should be shot!\u201d Buscaglia replied: \u201cAll of them? I know some nice people who smoke.\u201d But the man replied with greater resolve: \u201cI hate smokers — all of them!\u201d [This obviously happened in the 1980s. The man would like our current policies!]<\/p>\n
When at last the plane was airborne, the man turned to Buscaglia and asked, \u201cWhat do you do for a living?\u201d<\/p>\n
Buscaglia answered, \u201cI am a professor.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cReally? What do you teach?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMostly I teach courses in relationships, how to treat one another, how to get along. Basically I teach about love.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ornery traveler responded with absolute sincerity, \u201cI\u2019m glad to meet someone who shares my values!\u201d [1]<\/p>\n
The Bible recognizes this shortcoming and gives us these admonishments:
\n “See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
\nPsalm 139:24<\/p>\n
\u201cA person may think their own ways are right, but the LORD weighs the heart.\u201d
\nProverbs 21:2<\/p>\n
\u201cThe wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways, but the folly of fools is deception.\u201d
\nProverbs 14:8
\n________<\/p>\n
1. Michael B. Brown, Be All That You Can Be (Lima, Ohio: CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 1995), p. 2; quoted in the sermon \u201cLiving With Difficult People,\u201d by Rev. King Duncan, Seven Worlds Publishing (Kerux Sermon #23009).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Many of us lack self-awareness. Leo Buscaglia, a best-selling author popular for his messages on the importance of love, once took a 5-hour flight from Los Angeles to New Jersey. When he took his aisle seat, it was obvious the man next to him was irritated by his presence. The man explained to Buscaglia that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2776,1751,1844,2127,2132],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7593"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7593\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}